Accra, Ghana – GCB Bank PLC, Ghana’s first and largest indigenous bank, today announced that it is on course to meet its profit before tax of GH¢3.7 billion for fiscal year (FY) 2026.
This follows the bank’s significant performance in the first nine months of this year, reporting profit before tax of GH¢2.87 billion for the period ending in September 2026.
Based on this splendid performance and prevailing operating assumptions, the management is targeting a minimum profit before tax of GH¢3.7 billion for the 2026 financial year.
Senior executives of the bank, led by their Managing Director, Farihan Alhassan, told shareholders, the investing public, analysts, financial and economic journalists, brokers, among others at the Ghana Stock Exchange’s Facts Behind the Figures that the bank’s strategy is working.
The GCB Bank PLC launched the 2025–2028 strategy which was set out to move it from gains to dominance. Today, the numbers say that journey is well underway.
The bank’s profit before tax of GH¢2.87 billion is 42.6% higher than a year ago and already 91% of the full profit the bank earned in 2025.
Mr Alhassan explained that the result comes against the backdrop of a new challenge to earning resilience from margin compression.
As Ghana’s economy stabilised and interest rates fell, GCB responded by doing the real business of banking: lending to Ghanaian businesses and households, growing fee income, and running a leaner operation, he added.
Growing Customer Deposits
Mr Alhassan said the bank’s customer deposits grew 22.9% to GH¢50.78 billion, emphasising that the low-cost Current and Savings accounts (CASA) contributed 93.2% of the total funding mix for the period.
All three business lines – Retail, Wholesale & Investment Banking (WIB), and Commercial & Business Banking (CBB) – added to the deposit engine.
Funding Ghana’s Productive Sectors
This more affordable, stable funding is now flowing into Ghana’s productive sectors, underpinning the 29.0% growth in total assets year-to-date to GH¢67.62 billion.
As a result, gross loans climbed 47.7% year-to-date to GH¢26.33 billion, a growth of 120.6% since December 2024. Loans now make up 47.4% of the Bank’s earning assets, up from 40.6% at the end of 2024.
The bank also grew bigger and cleaner at the same time. The Non-Performing Loans (NPLs) ratio improved to 4.8%, from 10.8% a year earlier and 15.06% at the end of 2024. The NPL ratio declined across all three business lines, reflecting the risk discipline underpinning the growth strategy.
Non-funded Income Jumped
Non-funded income, from fees, trading and FX, jumped 81.7% to GH¢2.13 billion. It now contributes 37.4% to operating income, up 10.1 percentage points in a year. Total operating income rose 32.4% to GH¢5.70 billion, even as falling rates squeezed margins.
Income grew 32.4% while costs grew 21.3%, giving the Bank positive operating jaws of 11.1 percentage points. The cost-to-income ratio improved to 45.1%, from 47.9% at the end of 2024.
The value of this performance is reaching shareholders. The annualised return on equity stands at 36.3% and return on assets at 4.1%. Earnings per share rose 43.3% to GH¢9.38. In response, GCB’s shares rallied, nearly doubling in value year-to-date.
Quality Growth
Mr Alhassan was emphatic: “These results show what disciplined execution can do. The easy Treasury era is over, and we saw it coming. We chose to lend more to Ghanaian businesses, to earn more from serving customers well, and to spend every cedi with care”.
He continued: “The outcome is a bank that is larger, more productive, more diversified, and cleaner. Our customers trust us with their deposits, and we are putting that trust to work for Ghana’s growth.”
This outlook remains subject to developments in interest rates, credit conditions, market activity and other factors affecting the Bank’s operating environment, according to the Managing Director, whose bank was listed on the Ghana Stock Exchange in 17th May 1996.
